Laura Weiner

As a professional French horn player performing with groups all over New York City and the world, I have to laugh at how arbitrary a decision the French horn was. I chose the horn in fourth grade so my friend wouldn’t be the only girl in the brass section; in exchange, she made me several friendship anklets. (Ah, the 90s). We would spend hours trying to match pitches to the piano, and thanks to my hearing-impaired mother turning off her hearing aids, we progressed quite quickly.

While I am occasionally called upon to play loud symphonic music, my musical home is fun and agile chamber music with cool, creative people. I especially love pushing the limits of what brass instruments do with Alarm Will Sound and the “post-post-feminist feminist pop horn experience” Genghis Barbie. I went to music school at Northwestern University where I studied French literature and being cold till May, and University of Wisconsin-Madison for my masters in will I ever be warm again. After school I did a two year fellowship at Carnegie Hall called Ensemble Connect, where I learned how to be a more authentic performer and jaded New Yorker.

When not buzzing a mouthpiece, I teach music appreciation to elementary students, piano to students at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and songwriting to police officers and teenagers in NYC. I’m really into music as a tool for criminal justice reform and helping us all get a little more free.